Tuesday, July 19

Take Heart

Come this saturday at approximately 7 in the morning, I will be diving into the water to begin a triathlon my brother and I have been training for. I don't know what to expect. Something keeps telling me that I'm prepared but my nerves tell me I'm not. Regardless, its going to happen and how I enter the race will greatly decide how I will finish it.
We had a short biking session today and while I was riding, the wind was relentlessly pounding me back trying to slow me down. I wanted to turn around, find a detour around the open road, and try to avoid the resistance. It wasn't happening. I had to go that direction if I wanted to get home. Taking a detour would only prolong my journey. I had to face the wind, drop down a gear and push through the burn.

OK, so it wasn't really that bad, but this is similar to what I go through and what I think everybody goes through nearly on a daily basis. We face resistance. So what, just find a detour and go around it. But how do you go around wind? Its there, penetrating every piece of atmosphere in that direction.
Jesus told his disciples that they would have trouble in this world, they would face opposition and resistance to who they are and what they do; they would even face death that wouldn't really be pleasant to say the least. But "take heart", he told them, "for I have overcome the world". Pretty encouraging, eh? The man who befriended you, taught you, says he will DIE for you tells you to take heart in the midst of trouble. It would have sounded like nonsense except for one other detail...He's also God.

So I put my head down, drop a gear, and ride on into the wind, not like it isn't there, but like it has no power over me. It would be an act of passivety to try to escape and avoid it; it would just prolong my journey and I would eventually find it pushing against me in opposition once again. But there is hope and we grow stronger because we persevere. So when facing opposition, tuck your head for some extra aero, drop down a gear, and ride hard, because He has overcome the world.